Working toward goals

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Had a student ask me this week why Georgia is ranked 47 out of 50 states. Actually, that's higher than I thought we were. He asked if it was because Georgians are dumber.

My co-teacher got very quiet watching me, telling me later he was waiting to see how diplomatically I could answer this. Apparently I surprised him.

I told the student that the first thing is Georgia requires every high school graduate to take the SAT. Some don't care about college so they don't take the test seriously. In other states, only the people planning on college take the SAT so they try harder, plus it is different demographic.

In addition, I told them, there are some people who lower the expectations for the students, making a recovery policy which makes student success dependent on the teacher not the student. I said, if you are willing to accept their expectation, you will never rise as high as you will if you set the bar high.

One of my favorite movies is "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness" which is the story of Gladys Aylward. Gladys was told she wasn't good enough to become a missionary, so the organization in England refuses to pay her way to China. She pays her own way to China, becomes a successful missionary and saves over 100 children from the Japanese.

She was told she wasn't good enough, but she refused to believe it. My students too often accept someone else's verdict about their life.

How to help someone see that they may be able to succeed if they would just keep working.

“You miss 100% of the shots you never take.” Wayne Gretzky